Sunday, 28 October 2012

Fornax and Content are two producers who've been lurking on the Hedmuk radar for a little while, and with a combination of their respectively organic and tech-y styles as FNC it was about time to get them on the line for an interview and to have them contribute a mix (their very first under the new moniker, no less) to our exclusive series. And it is that combination of styles which is so appealing; take, for example, the music made by Pinch and Distance as Deleted Scenes: each producer has their own clearly-established sound, and yet the combination doesn't sound like an uneasy mesh of textures but rather something refreshing and of itself. Gaining pace so quickly, and with collaborations with the likes of Razor Rekta and DCult in the works, we're looking forward to see where the duo will evolve to next.

Hedmuk: To introduce yourselves to those who don't know, what are your names, where do you come from and how would you each describe the music you make as FNC?

Fornax: My name's Aaron aka Fornax.

Content: My name's Tony aka Content. The music I guess I will let Fornax describe...

F: Magical

C: Right! That sums that up, then.

F: No seriously, we tend to make [music at] 140bpm and we have a strong emphasis on drums and percussion.

C: Well we got there in the end - there was at least 30 minutes work and this was the best answer we could come up with (laughs).

H: How did you both first get into making beats? Have you found that you are approaching production from a similar angle, or do you benefit from differing in this area?

C: I started 2 years ago, working with Benton under the Organics alias. He showed me everything I could need to know at that stage, I guess. I didn't really get into writing beats on my own until September last year, when I got back from Outlook.

F: I guess I started over 2 years ago: I watched a video about a KORG Electribe. I bought that...wish I still had it. Then I guess that opened the door to electronic music production; that got me asking questions around how other sounds were made. I didn't really know what to do at that point or what genre I wanted to make. I joined Uni doing Music Production, but I only started making dubstep around December 2011 -

C: - Before Fornax starts with all the geek squad shit; we totally approached it from different angles at the beginning. He's all about colours and things being in the right place, and I just like to get the idea down. But this has completely changed in the last month

F: I've turned him: he works my way now.

C: True.

F: Our styles still differ, but we do work off the same platform now.

H: How did the FNC project come about and how do you go about working on the tunes together? Do you prefer to work on developing stems independently or get into the studio together?

F: Basically Content was badgering me, messaging me for a couple of months and eventually I gave in (laughs) and we worked on what became 'Opticks'.

C: At the time I just wanted to do a collab, but we worked well together: that tune ['Opticks'] was done in 8 hours max. After the initial plays of 'Opticks' on J:Kenzo's Daily Dose of Dubstep show, and because the ideas were flowing so easily, we just never stopped. Eventually we just settled on FNC as a name.

F: Mainly because we couldn't think of a better name.

C: Besides, like, Boys Brigade or something overly camp.

FNC: We bounce ideas off each other, we talk about what type of tune we want to write (the type of sound we are after) and then we usually take it in turns to start a project. We just bounce it back and forth via Dropbox. We've only actually met once and that was to make 'Apraxia'.

C: Ideally we would prefer to be in the studio together more, but due to living a few hours apart this isn't always possible. If we got a bigger project on the go, like and album or something, I think one of us would have to relocate - i.e. Fornax! (laughs).

H: Since you've both also working hard on your own individual productions, as Content and Fornax respectively, how do you go about deciding which ideas to continue with on your own and what to use as material to collaborate on as a duo?

C: I guess we have kind of stopped individual work at the moment.

F: We do have the odd bits that we are doing, like I have a remix coming up to do and will have to fit that in when I can.

C: We don't start a track that we don't finish, mainly because we always discuss the idea and the concept behind what we want to make next.

H: Your tunes have been picked up by a number of big players recently, including the likes of Plastician, N-Type and Joe Nice; how does it feel to have your music spread to such a wide and varied audience? And do you feel that this puts pressure on you or challenges you to progress with your productions?

F: Content was taking the piss out of me because I got excited about someone following me on Twitter a few weeks back. So to be played by some of these guys is humbling.

C: Fornax has covered it there: humbling. I don't think it puts any extra pressure on us, but I would say it challenges us.

F: We have been focussing on improving our production techniques and we have really upped out work rate to try and give us an edge.

H: Take us through how you went about putting together the mix you've done for us.

C: When we sat and discussed what we were going to do, we both clearly wanted to use this as a showcase of our sound, so we took a couple of weeks to make some new music that people hadn't heard.

F: We just wanted to put across the sound we're creating as well, as include some artists who inspire us.

C: I said I wasn't going to mix it as I am already known for my DJing, so I thought I'd slap this one in Fornax's lap! He did a grand job.

F: Content would have just spent all day crying about what key things were in anyway (laughs).

H: Finally, are there any forthcomings or anything in the pipeline you'd like to put the word out on? Can we expect to see FNC appearing on flyers in the near future?

F: We are in talks about releases, but we haven't as yet agreed tracks and put names on paper.

C: We don't really want to release music just for the sake of releasing music: it's got to be right for the sound.

F: We have got a track featuring on the next Dubstep Allstars, though, so that's one milestone we can shout about. DJing-wise, it's something we feel we are now ready to take on; we held off on a couple of bookings as we wanted to make sure we had the material to showcase FNC not just 'F' or 'C'.

C: If you are interested in booking us you can do it via the email FNCdubstep@gmail.com or get in touch with one of us via Twitter.